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		<header>
			<h1>A temporary setup</h1>
			<p>Day 00924: Saturday, 2017 September 16</p>
		</header>
<img src="/img/CC_BY-SA_4.0/y.st./weblog/2017/09/16.jpg" alt="Pink and yellow flowers" class="weblog-header-image" width="800" height="480" />
<section id="general">
	<h2>General news</h2>
	<p>
		It turned out <a href="/en/domains/morgan.local.xhtml"><code>morgan</code></a> didn&apos;t hold up like I needed it to.
		Fairly quickly, it stopped working altogether, and I wasn&apos;t even able to finish yesterday&apos;s journal entry.
		I decided to head to a computer repair shop that I know of, and see how much it&apos;d cost for a quote.
		I didn&apos;t think they&apos;d be able to fix it though, as the inability to even reach the <abbr title="Basic Input/Output System">BIOS</abbr> screen makes me think it&apos;s a motherboard issue.
		If the technicians know their stuff though, they should be able to tell me that.
		Besides, without a working machine, I couldn&apos;t really use my time effectively anyway.
		I might as well use some time to look into the quote price.
		The good news is that the repair shop gives gratis quotes.
		The bad news is that the technician told me pretty much what I thought was the case, but in a less-technical way.
		After I described the issue, they said the machine was probably dead and couldn&apos;t likely be fixed.
		They said they could spen weeks working on it, but it&apos;d probably go nowhere.
		They also said they had an untested machine that&apos;d just come in.
		They needed to do some light testing, but if the machine functioned and I didn&apos;t want any extra installs software-wise, they&apos;d give it to me tomorrow for $40 <abbr title="United States Dollars">USD</abbr>.
		It&apos;s a 32-bit machine, but that&apos;s no problem on Debian.
		And since I do need to install my own operating system, it wouldn&apos;t do me any good to have them install anything extra for me, as it&apos;d get wiped by the system install.
	</p>
	<p>
		My mother alerted me to a bike light giveaway, and I don&apos;t have a pair of bike lights any more, now that someone stole one of mine.
		My mother doesn&apos;t know about that though, as far as I know.
		Anyway, I went to get a pair, and I brought with me a copy of the apartment key to make the pass-off.
		I&apos;m not ready for her to come in yet, but I&apos;m at the point where it&apos;s <strong>*safe*</strong> for me to risk her coming in, even if prematurely.
		She didn&apos;t show though, and then she later said she&apos;s going to be out of town for a few days.
		I&apos;ll make the pass-off another time, and hopefully, I&apos;ll have everything set up for her by then.
		I&apos;ve noticed that whenever I see the silver key on my lanyard, I smile.
		It&apos;s the only silver key of the bunch, and it&apos;s the key that lets me keep her out of my bedroom.
		I don&apos;t even think I want to keep her out of my apartment in general, and I don&apos;t think I&apos;ll mind her coming and going while I&apos;m away.
		I do need my safe space though, even if it&apos;s only a single room.
	</p>
	<p>
		The above all happened yesterday, to be completely clear.
		I just couldn&apos;t write about it because of my dead machine.
		Now let us continue with today&apos;s events, shall we?
	</p>
	<p>
		I wrote up most of a journal entry for today on another machine, but it looks like either that machine or my <abbr title="Universal Serial Bus">USB</abbr> drive failed me.
		The file now appears to be empty.
	</p>
	<p>
		I rode over to the computer repair shop this morning and got there just after they opened.
		The technician there had good news: the computer worked fine.
		So they sold it to me for the price they&apos;d quoted me on.
		I got it home, wrote down my dream, then wrote about the day so far.
		I&apos;m writing this all for the second time now, and I think I&apos;m forgetting several details.
		I saved the journal file to a <abbr title="Universal Serial Bus">USB</abbr> drive, then moved on to work on other stuff.
		I found though that when I tried to reach the Internet to pay a bill that was due today, the machine couldn&apos;t recognise its Wi-Fi card.
		The machine had been running Linux Mint of some version; I think Linux Mint 18.
		No doubt proprietary firmware was needed to make the Wi-Fi card work.
		I was planning to keep the Linux Mint installation long enough to get my coursework for the week done, then install the proper Debian 9 operating system, but I needed an Internet connection to do anything at all with my studies.
		I decided to try the easy, temporary solution: plug in my <abbr title="Universal Serial Bus">USB</abbr> Wi-Fi adaptor that I was told would work with only free firmware, but that I&apos;ve never actually gotten working on a free system.
		The adaptor didn&apos;t work though.
		Go figure.
		I&apos;d need to get the permanent solution in place right away: replace the Wi-FI card with one that is known to work with free firmware.
		I&apos;m so glad the <abbr title="Universal Serial Bus">USB</abbr> Wi-Fi adaptor didn&apos;t work.
		The new laptop was set up such that no serious dismantling was necessary to get at the Wi-Fi card, unlike with <code>morgan</code>.
		However, with the new Wi-Fi card in place, the machine refused to boot.
		It was important I find this out right away!
		THe <abbr title="Basic Input/Output System">BIOS</abbr> seemed to have some <abbr title="digital restrictions management">DRM</abbr> in it to prevent the use of third-party Wi-Fi cards, a nasty trick I&apos;d heard of being used in some of the machines Libreboot is compatible with, before Libreboot is installed and the noxious <abbr title="digital restrictions management">DRM</abbr>-laden <abbr title="Basic Input/Output System">BIOS</abbr> purged.
		I brought the machine back and explained the problem, and thankfully, the technician agreed to take it back.
		Had I not found out this problem within the hour, but instead waited several days, they might&apos;ve been more reluctant to reverse the transaction.
	</p>
	<p>
		It took about three hours round trip, but I made it to NextStep Recycling before work.
		I feared they wouldn&apos;t have any Linux laptops available, as they sometimes don&apos;t.
		They had two though.
		One was a Hewlett-Packard machine; but the <abbr title="digital restrictions management">DRM</abbr>-laden machine from this morning was also from Hewlett-Packard.
		I was extremely reluctant to take on that machine, especially given the higher price tag.
		The other was a Dell.
		I bought that one.
		I don&apos;t know why, but I talk too much, and I mentioned my need for a computer for my studies.
		It turns out there&apos;s a discount for students, so that saved me a chunk of money!
		I tried to figure out how to prove my status as a student, as the school didn&apos;t give me a way to identify myself, but they trusted me and didn&apos;t even want proof.
		Okay, that works for me.
	</p>
	<p>
		I got home with about an hour to left to rest before work.
		I tried to make the most of it, as my legs really hurt after that three-hour bike ride.
		When I got home from work, I opened my journal file to write about the trip to Eugene.
		That&apos;s when I found the file was blank.
		Ugh.
		I&apos;ve tried to recall what I could, but I&apos;ve no doubt missed some things.
		I feel like my entry&apos;s much smaller this time.
	</p>
	<p>
		I need to focus on my studies tomorrow.
		This machine I&apos;m working on is running Linux Mint 18, just like the machine that didn&apos;t pan out.
		I&apos;ll keep that installed until I have the week&apos;s work completed, then I&apos;ll install the needed <abbr title="operating system">OS</abbr>.
		Last time, i tried to install the operating system before finishing my coursework, and it ate so much time that it left me in a mad scramble to get my coursework in on time.
		It&apos;s better that I put of getting cosy on my new machine until I actually have time to do so.
		It&apos;ll be like I&apos;m a guest on a system for now, instead of running on my own system.
	</p>
	<p>
		I couldn&apos;t sign my <a href="/a/canary.txt">canary</a> today, as while I had a working laptop, it didn&apos;t have my necessary setup.
	</p>
</section>
<section id="dreams">
	<h2>Dream journal</h2>
	<p>
		This morning, I didn&apos;t have a working computer, so I couldn&apos;t jot down my dream while it was still fresh in my mind.
		Later, I had a computer long enough to write about my dream, but the file&apos;s data was somehow lost.
		So now, I&apos;ve written about it for the second time, but it&apos;s late and almost time to go to bed again.
		The details of my dream are therefore very hazy.
	</p>
	<p>
		I don&apos;t remember what I was doing exactly, but I was at my place of employment working as usual.
		After a while, I remember that I&apos;d already clocked out; I wasn&apos;t getting paid, so why should I keep working?
		I started finishing up a last-minute task that I didn&apos;t have to, just because I felt better having it done.
		But then I remembered I&apos;d already gone home.
		None of this could be real.
		It didn&apos;t matter if I finished up my task, as it wouldn&apos;t do anyone any good.
		I put down my tools, and before anything else could happen, I think I woke up.
	</p>
</section>
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